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Beware: Talent6 Scam
Today's job search ended on a strange note. Looking through the ads, I noticed at the top of one of my lists a reference to Talent6, a firm that places extras in films, commercials, and TV shows. I thought it might be fun to get into that - just for the fun of it. Clicking on the job posting sent me to a website, which was very unusual indeed!! The website showed a woman talking about the opportunities for people interested, willing, and able to become an extra. Sounded interesting and (if my memory serves me correctly) there was no mention of a service fee. There was a toll free number shown on the website, so I called it.
The guy on the phone was really nice and a great salesman on the idea. He answered all my questions except for the "service fee of $45" for the introductory packet of information. I thought that sounded strange, so I kept answering his questions about my address and phone number, spelling my name, etc. All the while I was simultaneously looking up the company on Google and the first available option that popped down in the search field was "Talent6 scam". Next was "Talent6 a legit company" or something along those lines.
Clicking on the search took me to a whole long list of people complaining about the company and its practices. Their complaints ranged from not sending out the promised information and not providing good enough information in their area for job opportunities to not canceling people's "subscription" to Talent6's opportunities. The Better Business Bureau website search on the company name and address revealed:
BBB Reliability Report for Talent6
Rating = F
Our opinion of what this rating means:
We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
Having read through all that information, I thanked the Talent6 guy for the information and told him I had another call. I researched some more and read the blog posts and Yahoo company information requests more thoroughly. A little later in the afternoon, I called the company to remove my name from their database. On the first call, the girl hung up on me or I got disconnected somehow, but when I called back, the same girl answered the phone (not a good sign) and had my information pulled up. She said she deleted my information. We'll see. I didn't give them my credit card information, but I hate to think - now - that they could possibly sell my address to another marketing firm. But, alas, that's the price I pay for getting stooped a little.
The guy on the phone was really nice and a great salesman on the idea. He answered all my questions except for the "service fee of $45" for the introductory packet of information. I thought that sounded strange, so I kept answering his questions about my address and phone number, spelling my name, etc. All the while I was simultaneously looking up the company on Google and the first available option that popped down in the search field was "Talent6 scam". Next was "Talent6 a legit company" or something along those lines.
Clicking on the search took me to a whole long list of people complaining about the company and its practices. Their complaints ranged from not sending out the promised information and not providing good enough information in their area for job opportunities to not canceling people's "subscription" to Talent6's opportunities. The Better Business Bureau website search on the company name and address revealed:
BBB Reliability Report for Talent6
Our opinion of what this rating means:
Having read through all that information, I thanked the Talent6 guy for the information and told him I had another call. I researched some more and read the blog posts and Yahoo company information requests more thoroughly. A little later in the afternoon, I called the company to remove my name from their database. On the first call, the girl hung up on me or I got disconnected somehow, but when I called back, the same girl answered the phone (not a good sign) and had my information pulled up. She said she deleted my information. We'll see. I didn't give them my credit card information, but I hate to think - now - that they could possibly sell my address to another marketing firm. But, alas, that's the price I pay for getting stooped a little.